Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-05-14

into tears at midnight over the fate OF
some unfortunate lover; in the day
time, when che ought TO be busy. star
ing by the half hour ut nothing; biting
her finger nails into the quick. The
carpet, that was plain before, will be
palmer after having wandered through
II romance FL night long in tesseiated
halls Of castles. And your industrious
companion will be more unattractiye
than ever, now that you have walked
in the romance through parks with
plumed princesses, or lounged IN the
arbor with the
POLISHED DESPERADO.
O, these confirmed novel readers.
They are untitled for this life, which is
a tremendous discipline. They know
not how to 90 through the furnace of
trial through which they must pass,
and they are untitled for n world where
everything we gain we achieve 10y hard,
long-continuing, and exhaustive work.
Again, abstain from all those books
which, while they have some good
things about them, have also an adj
mixture of evil. You have read books
that had two elements in them-the
good and the bad. Which stuck to
youp The bad! The heart of most
people is like a sciye, which lets the
small particles of gold fall through,
but keeps the great cinders. Once in
a while there is IA mind like II load
stone which, plunged amid steel and
brass filings, gathers up the steel and
repels the brass. But it it generally
just the opposite. If you attempt to
plunge through n hedge of burrs to get
II blackberry, you will get more burrs
than blackberries. You cannot afford
to read II bad book, however good you
are. You say: The influence is insig,
%niiicant." | tell you that the scratch
of a pin has sometimes produced lock
jaw. Alas! if through curiosity, as
many do, YOU pry into an evil book
your curiosity is as dangerous as thai
Of the man who would take a torch
into a gunpowder mill, merely TO sc,
whether it would really blow up OF
not. In a menaoerie in New York. :
man put his arm through the bars of /
black leopard's cage. The animal,
hide looked so sleek. and bright, ano
beautiful. He merely stroked it once
The monster seized him and he drew
forth a hand torn, and manglcd, AN,
bleeding.
o, TOUCH NO EVIL
even with the faintest stroke. Though
it may be glossy and beautiful, touch
not, lest you pull forth your soul tori
and blecdiag under the clutch of TIM
black leopard. But" YOU say, '.hov
can | find out whether a book is 1000
or bad without reading it?' There i
Is always something suspicious about
bad book. | never knew an exception
something suspicious in the index OF
style of illustration. This venomou,
reptile almost always carries a warn
ing rattle.
Again: | charge you to stand of
from all those books which corrupt th,
imagination and iuflame the passions
/ do not refer now 10 that kind of
book which the villain has under hi
coat waiting for the school to Get on
and then, looking both ways to see tina
there is no policeman around the block
offers the book to our sol on his wa,
home. | do not speak of that kind o
literature, but that which evades tn,
law and comes out in polished style
and with acute plot sounds the tocsil
that rouses up all the
BAsER PASSION
of the soul. To-day, under the nos
trils Of this land, there is a fetid, reek
ing. unwashed literature, enough t.
poison all the fountains of public virtue
and smite your sons and daughters n
with the wing of a destroying angel
and it is time that the ministers of tn
gospel blew the trumpet and called tn
forces of righteousness, all armed t.
the teeth. in this great battle agains
a depraved literature.
Again: abstain from these book
which are apologize OF crime. 1t Is
sad thing that some of thc best an'
most beautiful book bindtry, and som
Of the finest rhetoric, have bee
brought to make sin attractive. Vic
is a horrible thing any how. 1t is borl
in shame, and it dies howlinp in tn
darkness. In this world it is scouree,
with a whip Of scorpions, but after
wards the thunders of Gods wrath pur
sue it across a boundless desert, beat
ing it with ruin and woe. When 20,
come to paint carnality. do not paint
as looking from behind emoroidCre'
curtains, or through lattice of roya
seraglio. but as writhing in the agonie
of a city hospital.
CURsED BE THE BOOKS
that try to make impuritS decent, an
crime attractive, and hypocrisy noble
Cursed be the books that swarm wit
libertines and dcsperadoes. who max
the brain of the young people whir
with villainy! Ye authors who writ
them, We publishers who print 'h"n,
We booksellers who distribute .,r,
shall be cut to pieces. if not ~ '
aroused community. then at la { 10y VI
hail of Divine vengeance, which 49,
sweep to the lowest pit Of perdition al
We murderers OF souls. | tell YOU
thnnrh yfn, NOW nun.,.a IN thic u,rlI